February 3, 2014
Hello everybody!
First thing's first-congrats to Parker on being baptized!
Second thing-GO SEAHAWKS!!!! 43-8 is a heck of a game!
We had interviews with our Mission President on Wednesday,
and I felt like I needed to ask him about my being transferred. He asked me,
"Do you think you leaving will affect anyone's eternal salvation?" I
told him that I'm not arrogant enough to say that nobody else in the Mission
can do my job as good as or better than me, so technically no. Then President
said, "Well, we'll put it this way-I've already got your picture off the
wall." Of course, he said he wanted to move me last transfer, and that
Sister Packard "about mollywhogged" him when he didn't move me, but
we'll see I guess. I definitely don't want to leave, but I know that wherever I
go, there will be another group of people for me to find.
A couple of weeks ago, a member of the ward-Heather
Halpin-passed away. Her memorial service was on Saturday, and I had a number of
thoughts during the service, and afterwards as I reflected on it, that I would
like to share.
Heather had a hard life. She had several mental and physical
disabilities that made life much harder for her than it needed to be. She spent
quite some time in jail for various offenses, and made a lot of poor choices. However,
her legacy is not a sum of her choices or wrongdoings or shortcomings. People
repeatedly mentioned her determination to be better, to get up and try again
each day. Setback after setback came her way, but she never let anything get
her down. She knew (as Elder Holland puts it) that, "The past is to be
learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing
experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn
and have brought with us the best that we have experienced, then we look ahead,
we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future. Faith always has to
do with blessings and truths and events that will yet be efficacious in our
lives." Heather's determination to rise up and to try again stemmed from
her faith that tomorrow WOULD be better, that it WAS in God's hands, and that
He would help her get through whatever she needed to get through. She may have
shown her faith a little differently than most folks, but she looked
steadfastly to the future for blessings she knew the Gospel offered her.
Heather had a way of loving people that is difficult to
describe. Though she lived in poverty for most of her life, she helped anyone
and everyone who needed it. She had a collection of things that she had saved
up and was going to give to someone less fortunate than her. She just loved
people unconditionally. This was shown when she came to Church (or, more
accurately, after Church) on the day she died. She got to the building, and was
absolutely frantic, looking for her son. She found him there and hugged him
like he was the only thing with meaning in her life. They had a great chance to
just sit and talk for about 30 minutes, and she couldn't have been happier. I
saw her with that same smile, giving that same hug to many others as they
struggled with life's difficulties. Her empathy embraced so many people from so
many walks of life, and she always found a way to make them laugh.
I also learned something about justice and mercy that I've
never fully realized before. We learn from Alma 42:23 that "mercy claimeth
the penitent." I looked up penitent and found this definition: willing to
atone. Heather repeatedly told her Home Teacher that as much as she hated being
in jail, it was better to pay for her sins now than to never be punished for
them. Heather was willing to go to her own penitentiary-literal of
figurative-to pay for her sins. She was truly penitent. Mercy could (and as far
as I'm concerned, will) be extended to her, because she felt sorrow for her
wrongdoings, and was always striving to make it right before others and our
Father in Heaven. "God doesn’t care nearly as much about where you have
been as He does about where you are and, with His help, where you are willing
to go." (Jeffrey R. Holland, "Remember Lot's Wife") She was, and
had been, in difficult circumstances for most of her life. But God saw where
she was going; what she was trying to do and to become. Heather died trying to
get Temple-worthy. Among other things, she had to quit smoking. She said so
many times, "I want that cigarette so bad, but I want to go to the Temple
more!"
Sorry there's not much of an update on myself, but most of
my thoughts recently have been on Heather and the lessons I've learned from her
and her life. Thanks for all of your love and support, and I hope that all of
y'all have a great week!
-Eldah Boone
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